I've been reading an old book of my mother's, A Loving Spirit, by Daphne du Maurier. This edition was published in 1948. It still has spaces between quotation marks and the beginning of a sentence and the punctuation at the end, and between the end of a word and punctuation other than commas e.g. " Help ! ". I had thought that this died out in the 19th century, but it obviously survived far longer. Even since I started writing for publication there have been changes in standard formatting. I'm not talking about changes in language here, but how manuscripts are presented. Nor am I talking about how individual publishers want manuscripts formatted (you should always check their guidelines), but of general trends whereby certain features which were once frowned upon become not only accepted, but considered the correct form. Once, you not only had to write proper nouns with an initial capital letter, but all nouns. Now, you could expect to see a proofreader's corrections all over your manuscript if you did it. When was the last time you saw a letter addressed to 'Dear Sir,' signed off with 'Yours faithfully'? Putting two spaces after a full stop is rapidly falling out of favour and, no doubt, will soon be extinct. It isn't enough to trust that you learned the format of manuscripts or letters etc. at school, and know how to do it. If it was more than 10 years ago, you really need to refresh your skills and look up current trends. For proofreaders and those in the writing professions, it has to be an ongoing process.

About Me

K S Dearsley

Northampton, England

My writing career began as a freelance feature writer for the local press, businesses and organisations. Now a prize-winning playwright and short story writer, my work has appeared in numerous publications on both sides of the Atlantic. I write as K. S. Dearsley because it saves having to keep repeating my forename, and specialise in fantasy and other speculative genres.